USING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL) MODULE DEVELOPMENT AS A CONTENT FRAMEWORK FOR ESS TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

In the current test driven model of education, teachers are confronted with the specter of “Adequate Yearly Progress”(AYP) as a measure of a schools success. Unfortunately AYP does not count science in its scoring methodology so resources are directed to the “more important” areas of the curriculum. Certified earth/space science teachers are listed as a critical shortage area in NH. Do to the lack of certified teachers, teachers with little or no content background in the field teach the majority of earth/space science courses. These teachers are often confronted with a disjointed list of earth science topics that must be taught and the lists often vary from district to district regardless of suggested state guidelines.

Using The Coral Reefs module developed by The Earth System Science Educational Alliance (ESSEA) through the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) as a starting point and model module teachers learn how to develop local and global modules for their classrooms. The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) ReaL Earth Inquiry project is also used so that teachers may follow up their course work and develop their own Virtual Field Experiences.

This presentation addresses the use of the model modules developed by ESSEA and PRI as professional development tools for teaching content and the issues involved with having teachers developing local modules as a means of improving content.